Tuesday, 1 July 2014

30k - A Guide: Making Your First Purchases

Welcome
to the second article in my series on taking those first steps towards building
a Horus Heresy army. In this article I will discuss the next big hurdle you'll
have to... um... hurdle... on your way to completing the Horus Heresy army
building race metaphor. If you're playing along at home then you will have just
picked what Legion you're going to collect. Using my hypothetical war gamer
(and a name that a friend of mine uses in bars), Jerome Pleasure-Town, we'll
quickly pick a Legion.

Following
my five question system Jerome came to a number of speedy conclusions. Jerome
likes blue, it's a manly colour and he feels it accentuates his eyes. Next JPT
realises he's new to the game and not an expert when it comes to using green
stuff so he's looking for a Horus Heresy line that is mostly released. He wants
an army with the rules already released and is keen to gear his army towards
close combat. This leaves Jerome with two viable choices, Night Lords or World
Eaters at a stretch (noting they're mostly white). Put off by Ty's already
impressive World Eaters force, Jerome chooses Night Lords as his first Legion
army.

But
what to buy? The FW website is full of choices and there aren't any pre-formed
bundles like on the GW website. Hell. Jerome realises he doesn't even know the
rules. This is the first purchasing decision point and one that I myself really
struggled with. For only £60 you can get yourself all the rules for the HH game
and the first 12 Legions in this newly available compact collection. However
these books don't have the plethora of artwork and background fluff
(information about the HH universe) that the magnificent original HH series do,
though to get the same amount of rules will cost £210. Steep no? Luckily I have
a mate who already had the third HH book and could access the Iron Warrior
rules. So I decided to start with the HH Betrayal book as they're absolute
pieces of art and I couldn't miss the opportunity to own them, and hold them,
and gently whisper to them late at night. My plan is to buy them over a year or
so, spreading out the cost.

Jerome
however is a lone wolf with no such access so he gets the compact collection.
But he also doesn't want to wait until his FW order, coming all the way from
the Motherland, arrives before deciding on what miniatures to add to his
fledgling army. For any HH army, no matter what you're collecting. There are a
few safe bets. You're going to need compulsory troops. While some armies flip
the FOC chart around and have their own troop choices, the basics are always
useful and good practice to start painting on anyway. You've only really got
three choices for compulsory troops (not considering the multiple FOC swapping
options). Tactical Squads, Assault Squads and Breacher Squads. You'll also want
to get your hands on an HQ choice but let's not rush into anything for this
purchase.

As
Jerome wants to defeat his enemies in close combat, staring into the panicked
whites of their eyes, he's decided to go with a Tactical Squad and an Assault
Squad as his two compulsory choices. No matter what future directions Jerome's
army takes these two units will be useful. A gamer focused on shooting may
decide on two Tactical Squads, while a gamer with a theme in mind may lean
toward using Terminators or Legion specific units as compulsory troops choices.
The key to choosing a unit is considering manoeuvrability, purpose and synergy.
Eventually Jerome is going to want to find a way to get his Tactical Squad up
in the enemies' face and to have a helping hand while they're there, but we
won't spoil that discovery for him right now.

Jerome
also does a bit of research and, using Macca's handy Armour Guide, chooses MkIV
armour for his Night Lords. So here's what you want to buy Jerome:

This will give Jerome a fledgling army with two minimal troops choices, a good basis from which to expand. In
the next article we'll talk about the magic behind Horus Heresy HQ choices and
how that will impact your entire army and future list building. In the meantime, enjoy and keep the dice rolling.